Credit cards are widely used throughout the world. They are formed typically of a plastic material and have an account identification number and customer name imprinted thereon. When making a purchase, the credit card is used to provide a physical imprint of the name and account information of the customer. The customer thereupon receives the goods which are purchased; the seller receives payment from the credit company or bank; and the customer is subsequently billed by the bank for the purchase. One variation of the credit card is the use of a magnetic stripe which contains the account information. This, however, does not always obviate the need for taking an imprint of the credit card during the purchase.
Engineers and corporations, located mainly outside the United States, are developing a new type of credit card referred to generally as a "smart-card." Each smart-card contains one or more integrated circuit chips, contacts to the circuitry on the chips, and frequently a power source such as a very thin battery. The chips on the smart-card usually include several hundred or thousand bytes of memory, and may even include a microprocessor. Some such cards include memory chips but no microprocessors, and have been referred to as "dumb-cards", whereas cards which do have processing capability have been called "chip-cards." In any event, such smart-cards can be used in making purchases and in other applications. In the purchasing environment, one application is "off-line shopping" in which a bank "charges up" or stores credits in memory on a particular card, and merchants thereafter subtract the purchase price at the point of purchase from the balance recorded on the card. Smart-cards have also been tested for medical records experiments wherein hospitals use cards to record visits to doctors.
Regardless of the application, smart-cards employ a physical communication link between the card and a cooperating system at the time of a transaction. This is inconvenient, and an object of the present invention is to avoid the necessity for a physical communication link between a "smart" device and a cooperating system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved system comprising a memory chip or group of chips including memory and a cooperating reader.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved communication system which is simple to use.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide such a communication system which is housed in and attached to a wristband.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a further application for timepieces.
Still another object of the present invention is to adapt a digital wristwatch for use as a combined wristwatch and "smart-card" system.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a new type of "smart-card" device with an improved communication system.
Wristwatches have previously been disclosed as being useful for paging operations. For example, European Patent Publication No. 184,606 ("Page Watch System Utilizing Time Slot Communication," published June 18, 1986) and W.I.P.O. International Publication WO86/03645 ("Watch Pager System And Communication Protocol," published June 19, 1986) disclose systems where a wristwatch includes substantial communication and processing circuitry and an antenna. However, while these publications indicate the feasibility of adding receiver circuitry to a wristwatch, they do not suggest the "smart-card" application or system of the present invention.